shots Awards 2011: New Director of the Year

They say that the best things come in small packages, so when the package is minute enough to lose between your finger and thumb, you can expect something special.

At the end of last year prolific English animation studio Aardman released a tiny film that made a massive splash. Directed by Will Studd and Ed Patterson, aka Sumo Science, Nokia Dot entered the Guinness Book of World Records for featuring the world’s smallest ever stop-motion animation character. “Dot was a first for us in terms of tackling something on such a tiny scale. We were aware from the outset that if we got this one right it could well go on to becoming something special,” say the duo, and they were right.

They were approached by Wieden + Kennedy London with a brief to make a tiny film using and celebrating the new technology of the Nokia N8 camera phone and an attachment known as a CellScope, which turns the handset into a microscope. The CellScope was invented to, among other things, enable doctors working in Africa to view and photograph blood cells, then email the pictures to contacts around the world.

Tiny miracles

After dismissing the idea of animating blood cells, the directors bought a USB microscope and began research. “What we uncovered was an incredible, tiny world right under our very feet. The last time I think we’d even observed this world on such a small scale was probably back at school, sitting in the science lab and watching plant cells float about,” remember the directors.

Inspired by their renewed appreciation of the otherwise invisible environment around them, the pair began brainstorming and ended up talking about Alice In Wonderland. After examining the model figures that train set enthusiasts ‘play with’, they eventually settled on the idea of creating a tiny heroine who would lead the audience through her own world. “We wouldn’t make it easy for her,” say the pair. “The landscape would be perilous, full of obstacles, pitfalls and an ever-threatening wave of destruction that would chase her, ripping up everything behind her.” The film’s star, Dot, was born at a whopping 10mm tall.

Such small scale animation was an unknown to the directors and filming stop-motion on a camera phone had never been done before. However, they were eager to get stuck in and once they’d captured a few seconds of footage they realised how much potential the project had. “We really felt we had created something original and something that would stand out, even amongst big budget commercials. It felt hand crafted and seemed to capture the very essence and magic of stop-motion animation.”

Using tweezers, a magnifying glass and extremely steady hands, Sumo Science created not only a thrilling chase story, but also a magical, enchanting world where Dot is chased by all manner of everyday items. The film captured the imagination of the industry, the pubic and our panel of judges, who awarded Sumo Science with the first ever shots New Director of the Year award. “We’re thrilled to win this award and it’s all thanks to our little star, Dot. She’s done us proud.”

It will come as no surprise that since Dot’s release, the guys have been rushed off their feet. “It’s been our busiest year to date. Dot has finally put us on the map and shown the world what we can do. Here’s hoping we can stay!” It’s unlikely they’ll be disappearing anytime soon, having already produced Dot’s follow-up, Gulp.

Thinking they’d completed a pretty taxing challenge already, the guys were shocked when they found out what lay ahead. “When Wieden + Kennedy came back to us with the Gulp brief we soon realised how easy Dot was in comparison,” they say.

The next big thing

It was time to go big. In fact it was time to go enormous, and break another world record while they were at it. Again using the Nokia N8, but this time suspending it from a crane, the guys created the world’s biggest stop-motion animation set on an 11,000 square-foot beach in Wales. Gulp is the story of a fisherman whose boat is swallowed by a whale, before unwittingly detonating a dormant mine inside its stomach, which blows him back above the surface. Using rakes to animate the sand frame by frame, the gargantuan production was so massive that the one real actor it featured looks the same size as Dot did on screen.

“Gulp was a challenge of enormous proportions. Shooting outside, animating fast enough that we could clear set before the tide came in, and working with such a huge team compared to the two of us usually doing everything ourselves.” Though, they hasten to add, it was worth it in the end: “It was a big step but one we relished and got through unscathed, and the outcome was a charming ‘little-big’ film, one we’re very proud of.”

The film was a huge success and secured the directors’ second Guinness World Record. How does it feel to be entered in that book twice? “Awesome. We both feel like big kids when we look up at our framed certificates. Who’d have thought?”

The one piece of work Sumo Science most wish they’d made themselves this year is Adam Berg’s Homes Within Homes spot for Talk Talk. “It has such a sweet sensibility to it with a nice mix of stop-motion and live-action,” they say. If you’re wondering where their name came from, there’s a surprisingly logical explanation. “My uncle was one of the first British sumo wrestlers in the early 80’s,” says Ed, “Will’s mother was a scientist in the pharmaceutical industry. We knew we wanted something alliterated so we just put the two together. Sad but true.”

Whether they’ll find another record to break we’ll have to wait and see, but there’s no doubt about the pair’s ambitions. “To keep making, creating and to never lose that spark that got us going in the first place.” Sumo Science’s story is almost a fairytale in itself, starring two young directors who started small and hit the big time.

New Director of the Year Shortlist

Nokia Dot directed by Sumo Science

Bridgestone A Boy and his Tire directed by Jeannette Godoy

Poste Itaniana Because I Like You directed by Davide Mardegan

Modern Times directed by Ben Craig

Amon Tobin Esther’s directed by Charles de Meyer

WWF We Miss You directed by Hanna Maris Heidrich

Sunshine Sakae Dad’s Love directed by Wataru Sato

Vindeenlief.be Femme-o-matic directed by Jelmar Hufen

Dirt Devil Exorcist directed by Andreas Roth

New Director of the Year Judging Panel

Santiago Lucero, ECD, Fallon London